Losing Faith
by Nightmares Grace
Summary: It's been two years since the girls left Fell's Church, separated. As Meredith struggles with Alaric Bonnie calls her with a terrifying vision of her death. But the two girls don't know who to turn to for advice when Damon and Stefan rise as suspects.
1. Chapter One

Meredith didn't move when the lights to her bedroom flicked on. Her eyes were shut lightly as if in a pleasant dream with her lips parted just enough for her breathing to escape in and out rhythmically. The silent hover of Alaric above her made her stir involuntarily. She pried one unwilling eye open to see him crouched beside the bed with a loving gaze. Propping up on one elbow, she looked at her husband-to-be who was grinning at her sheepishly.

"Sorry to wake you," he mumbled leaning forward to kiss her forehead with a bristly chin. "It was a late night at the office."

Meredith squirmed under the covers. She could smell the hint of alcohol on his breath, even though he had tried his best to cover it up with several pieces of peppermint gum. These 'late nights' Alaric always complained about were usually times when he went on drinking binges with his new buddies from work. The drinking didn't bother her – he was a guy, after all- but the thought that some of his friends and co-workers were of the female variety did pull the strings of her paranoia.

Alaric blinked after a long paused moment. His blond brow burrowed into a frown as he reached forward to stroke a dark strand away from her face. "Meredith?" He asked puzzled. "Are you alright?" His voice was full of sincere concern, making Meredith's insides tingle with glee. Little moments like this reminding her that he _did_ love her with all his heart.

"I'm fine," she assured him with a meek smile. "I was just… thinking about Elena and Bonnie." It wasn't quite a lie. Thoughts of _What would Elena do?_ were constantly crossing her mind. "They're just so far away, and I haven't seen them in awhile."

Two years had passed since Klaus' torment of Fell's Church. Nonsense of fighting vampires seemed like ages ago to Meredith, but the memories still hung fresh in her mind. Damon had gone as soon as dawn rose above the horizon, probably off seducing women and terrorizing little children for their pocket change.

Stefan and Elena hung around for a bit longer. At night Meredith could hear them walking the streets; Elena's high pitched giggle, Stefan's footfalls as he trotted after her. During the day Meredith and Bonnie would spend their days at the boarding houses talking colleges and jobs, and breaking away from their small little town. Behind their shared laughter and playful roughhousing it was obvious all of them knew the truth. Sooner or later they would all have to break away and go their own separate paths. Their teenage years were not meant to last forever, and adulthood crept closer and closer as the summer days grew shorter.

Before fall had even begun, Elena and Stefan had left. Matt had found a wind-whipped note on the door with Elena's familiar elegant scribble. Gone to Italy, with all their love. Bonnie cried for hours, and Meredith wished she could have done the same.

Matt didn't bother to stay much longer. He was packed and ready before a week had gone by of Elena's departure. With a football scholarship and suitcases loaded in his trunk, he hugged his good-byes.

Bonnie was next. She stayed awhile, until it was impossible for her to stay any longer. She begged Meredith to go with her – they could be dorm mates and paint their walls purple and pink – but Meredith was firm with her answer. No. As the car drove away, fading in the distance, the last of Meredith's ties were gone. The three close friends who had gone through thick and thin were torn apart by something as simple as time.

Alaric had come and swooped her off her feet, away from her misery, to no place other than Holland. He was stationed there by his boss, exploring supernatural activity while Meredith explored the country. Windmills, tulips – the country was beautiful, the people nice. She couldn't have asked for anything better.

"… and you'll make new friends, Meredith." Alaric finished saying as she slowly pulled herself out of her pool of memories. "You're a very lovely person. Don't you have friends at the schools you work at?"

She blinked twice and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, curling her body against his. "I'm only a substitute," Meredith said grimly. "It's not like I stay in one school too long." She enjoyed the job, but she never had time to connect with the students. In the back of her mind, a small voice nagged: _If I had gone to college, I would have been able to get a teaching degree. I could make friends with the rest of the faculty instead of being a familiar acquaintance. I could have _friends. But teaching wasn't something Meredith would have enjoyed – not all her life. There were bigger and better things to do than sit in a classroom with children. Didn't her life mean _anything?_

"Not many," she admitted, addressing Alaric's question. "Even if I did, no one would ever be able to replace them," she said sternly, thinking of her Fell's Church friends.

Alaric, with his sullen face and bruised eyes, nodded although Meredith was sure it didn't fully compute with him. "We'll talk more in the morning," he promised, slipping out of his jeans and into his sleepwear.

Meredith rolled onto her side as the weight of Alaric heaved onto the opposite side of the bed. She wasn't as sleepy anymore, and instead lay awake tracing the patterns on the ceiling with her eyes. She was thinking of what she had thought of her friends earlier. _Fell's Church friends. _Was that all they were to her now? Faces belonging to a town, a place. Years from now would she completely forget their names and everything they went through was just a childish adventure. She wanted to wake Alaric up and talk to him about it, but – no. It wasn't Alaric she was yearning to talk to. It was Bonnie's curious squeak, Matt's husky rumble, and Elena's reassuring tone that Meredith really wanted to hear.

Leaning forward, Meredith clutched her red razor in her hand, staring blankly down at its sleek surface. As if signaled by some godly force, it vibrated lighting the screen up with Bonnie's caller I.D floating below the yellow envelope. Meredith couldn't help but flash a grateful grin.

**Cheesy ending, but meh. I couldn't have come up with anything better. 8P I know it was boring, and mainly it was Meredith moping (and there was _no_ Damon in it. Seriously Meerkat what were you thinking?)** **but aren't most first chapters a tad on the bland side? I was going to add a Damon point of view in this chapter, but I got lazy and didn't finish it. But, since school will be starting soon (like tomorrow) I'll be able to write during lunch or something. **

**See you next chapter,**

**Meerkat.  
**


	2. Chatper Two

_Nifty disclaimer since I forgot to put one up the first chapter: I do not own the Vampire Diaries, or any of its characters. I am not making any profit from this story of any kind._

Patience wasn't one of Damon's more prominent qualities - in fact, he wasn't sure if he had much of it all. Which made waiting for his _date_ even more tedious then he anticipated. He had never really liked the woman much; too tall and thin for his liking, with eyes like a hawk. She was an over-protective, back-talking witch who had managed to hold a grudge with him since Katherine's death. Damon glared at his watch irritated, tugging at the sleeves of his leather jacket. She was three minutes late, give or take a few hours. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Are you just going to stand there?" A voice inquired from the dark. It was masked in a thick, irritated German accent. "Or come to greet me like a _gentleman_?" A woman stepped away from the protective shadows of the alleyway wearing only a chic satin blue dress and an angry scowl.

Trying his best to hold back a snarl of disgust Damon stepped forward and held out his elbow, the way he had done many times before for women over the centuries. He didn't say a word, and kept the look of pain on his face.

The woman slapped him. "What are you doing?" She demanded, her upper canines sharpening to a point.

Damon didn't wince when the cold hand hit him. "Nice to see you too, Gudren." He didn't bother to cover the sarcasm in his words, since it was becoming more and more obvious neither of them came here for pure enjoyment.

"Be quiet, Salvatore," Gudren growled. "Where's Katherine?" She asked, never being one to put up with his cockiness.

Thinking, Damon fell silent. He had been a bit skimpy on the details of his last encounter with Katherine; he hadn't even said a word about her to Gudren, making it odd that Gudren had brought it up so abruptly. Keeping his face unfazed he decided to play dumb. "Dead. Burned to ashes in my garden five hundred years ago." He paused, taking advantage of the German woman's silence. "Unless, of course, she didn't _really_ burn that day." He cocked a black eyebrow hiding a winning smirk.

Gudren's lips shaped into a tight frown. "I know you killed her. You and your brother."

"And our little dog, too." Damon said mockingly.

The maid stared off into the distance. "I thought you loved her. You know, I warned her about you two. That you would be the death of her. I didn't think I would be right."

"Oh enough of that, you old hag," Damon scoffed. Gudren, Damon couldn't help but notice, didn't look a day past thirty, and her blond hair still had a silky sheen to it. Not much like a hag at all. "Hypocrite. You lied about her death for five hundred years. I only lied about her living for two. If anything your crime is worse." He knew his last few words made him sound like a petulant child, but he kept his voice even and masculine.

Gudren didn't notice. She was still looking at whatever was behind Damon's back, her eyes glazed. "I've been looking for her since she left Florence. I haven't forgotten her since that day." Her tone reminded him of a mother's. Damon assumed Katherine was the closest thing to a child she had ever had.

"And you think I forgot her as soon I read that damned note?"

"It certainly seems like it!" Gudren cried, breaking away from her spell. "How many women have you slept with since you crawled out of your little coffin?" She was furious. The luster in her eyes had been replaced with a predator's stare and her skin tone had dropped several shades to porcelain white.

Damon winced, offended, but it didn't stop him from seething anger. "I've measured each and every girl up to Katherine. Why do you think I'm still single?"

"Because you're a pain in the ass," Gudren hissed. "An egotistical, cocky little man with no respect for anyone but himself."

Damon twisted his upper lip. "I wasn't finished. Why do you think my brother and I fell for Elena? Because-"

"So that's the skank's name?"

Damon's arm shot out, gripping Gudren by the throat and pinning her to the alley wall. He felt his anger begin to boil, and he fought to control his inner animal urge to sink his teeth in her neck and tear her limbs apart. Taking a deep breath he continued: "In the end _Elena_ fell for Stefan. And Katherine made it particularly clear she would have chosen him, too. So if you have beef, go to talk to my little brother. Obviously if she was somehow reincarnated she would have swung by his place first. " With that he loosened his grip and let Gudren slide to the ground. He wiped his hands on his pant legs and walked stiffly down the side-walk, his shoes making slapping noises as they hit hard against the pavement.

**A/N: I should have made this longer, but I'm too lazy to go back and fill in details and I thought the ending was semi-decent. Anyway, finally got the update! Hurray for Damon! (I love Ian Somerhalder – spelling's probably wrong – as Damon. I didn't like him at first, but he grew on me pretty darn quickly.) I posted my last minute excuse for waiting about two weeks to update this in my profile, so if you want to hear it check it out there. :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You all get free cats.**

**-Meerkats**


	3. Chapter Three

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries, nor am I making any profit from this_

"Meredith!" Her name spilled from Bonnie's mouth in one syllable, entangling itself in the static reception of her cell phone. It wasn't the same excited voice Meredith had grown so accustomed to, though. The voice on the other end of the phone was panicked and high-pitched, cracking whenever Bonnie's tone got high-pitched.

Looking at a passed out Alaric hesitantly Meredith slipped off her bed. She reached for some clothing trying to talk to her friend at the same time. "Bonnie, calm down," she whispered keeping her collected self as she shoved one arm through a green bathrobe. She tried to stay quiet, hoping not to wake Alaric up, but she knew that Bonnie's cries of distress were only the beginning and they were only going to get louder.

"I'm so sorry," Bonnie blubbered as Meredith stepped out onto her deck, the wind whipping at her hair. "I know it's late there, and you probably have work tomorrow. My roommate said it was stupid to call you and you probably wouldn't pick up-"

"Bonnie," Meredith's voice was stern and commanding, but her whole body was shaking – and not from the wild winds turning her cheeks pink. It was hard to hear anything. Between the winds, static, and the motor on Bonnie's mouth blending together Meredith was sure she would go deaf.

She could almost hear Bonnie quiver from the other end of the phone. "It was him."

It wasn't much help. There were a lot of _him_'s in Meredith's life. She breathed in deeply, focusing on relaxing her buzzing brain. Bonnie usually wasn't too clear the first time she babbled out her visions. "Who?" Meredith requested. "Who is _him_?"

For a terrifying moment she thought her red-headed friend was going to say Klaus. Instead, she spat out, "Damon." Meredith let out a sigh of relief, but Bonnie wasn't done. "It was Damon, I think. I only saw the back of his head, but there was a girl with him and they were talking about Elena, about _killing_ her. And you, you were on the ground, just lying there. All limp and lifeless and bloody, and Damon was just laughing," Bonnie shuddered, making that small noise she always did when she was terrified or sick. "He looked like one of those serial killers."

"You saw his face then?" Meredith asked. Her stomach felt like it was in a knot with snakes slithering around the bended corners.

Bonnie hesitated. "Well, no. I was more focused on you and the blood."

Meredith squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance. "So you didn't see the guy's face?"

"No," Bonnie replied, her voice full of exasperation. "I didn't see _Damon's_ face. I know it was him!"

"You can't be sure, Bonnie," Meredith replied, softly. "You haven't exactly always been right on the dot when it comes to people. You thought Katherine was Elena, remember?"

Angry static hissed through the phone. "Well I'm not the only one who got them mixed up! Stefan couldn't tell them apart at first either," Bonnie paused. "Who else could be?"

Meredith drew in a shaky breath. "Well, Stefan and Damon could practically pass for twins – I mean, its really obvious their related –"

"So you're saying _Stefan_ wants to kill you?"

"No, Bonnie, I just – It could have been anyone. You only saw the back of his head," Meredith said shaking her head. She could hear Bonnie pacing on the other end of the phone.

Meredith could picture Bonnie's red hair in a tangled knot and her hands thrown up in the air as she shouted, "I've seen Damon's head before. Three-hundred sixty degrees. It's kind of hard to forget."

Meredith's upper lip twitched into a small smile. It was an inappropriate time, but it was just so _Bonnie_. It almost felt like Fell's Church again.

Still, both of them were frustrated. "What about their father?" Meredith asked quietly, looking around the dark deck. She shifted the phone into her other hand.

"He's dead," Bonnie said impartial.

"They never clarified," Meredith corrected. "They aren't the type to talk too much about their family."

Bonnie groaned. "Are we going anywhere with this, Meredith?" She clicked her fingernails on the phone. "I thought we were going to be done with all this."

Meredith let out a sigh and turned around. Alaric had turned the light on, looking out the window at the deck a worried look on his face. "We'll talk about this tomorrow," she promised. "Maybe we can get in touch with Elena, too."

Bonnie gave a mute bye and hung up. Alaric motioned for her to come in looking through the window wearing a tired smile. She struggled back to the house; her body numb and her mind buzzing.

Damon pressed the hotel's phone to his ear, squinting his eyes against the sunlight that seeped through the curtains. "What do you want?" He growled into the receiver angry at being woken up. Last night he had left Gudren in the streets, speeding away in his Ferrari until he came across a group of young women at a club. They were all drunk and had teased him like playful kittens, but it still hadn't helped to completely erase his previous conversation with the German maid.

The clerk on the other end of the phone stuttered. He was probably one of those acne covered teenagers whose daddy was head honcho. "There's a young woman down in the lobby. She wants to see you."

"Who is she?" Damon asked, although he was positive he knew exactly who it was.

The clerk asked for a moment and a dusty cackle erupted from the receiver as the teenager dropped it on the counter. "She said her name's Katherine," the clerk responded his voice cracking at the _K_.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Well, tell _Katherine _I'll be right down," he drawled, his voice dripping sarcasm. And with that he slammed the phone down hard and pulled the crimson covers over his head. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't going anywhere.

Of course, his visitor had other plans for him. He had barely closed his eyes when a rough shove to his shoulder shook his body frame. "Get up," the voice snapped. He tried to ignore the bubble of annoyance in his chest. Another punch to his blanket covered torso. "Don't anger me, boy."

When the stillness of the air was broken once again from the swift movement of the violent arm Damon shot out and gripped the wrist. "Get out," he snarled looking irately at Gudren's hawk-like features.

Gudren pursed her lips as if she might actually listen to him. Instead, the maid stood her ground. "We made a deal. You need to honor it."

Damon shook his head, contemplating calling the police. He was already narrating a story in his head. There he was, minding his own business when some old hag broke into his room and repeatedly beat him in the shoulder. "Get out," he said again, more fiercely.

"Your father would be rolling in his grave right now, Salvatore," she said mockingly. "He was a good man. Always kept his promises."

Damon's fury bubbled up in his throat. It felt like thick lava wanting to escape. "Well, I guess I don't take much after my father, then." Gudren wanted to make his fur bristle, and he wasn't going to let her get the satisfaction.

Gudren smiled. Not her normal little smug smile, but _his_ smile. The self-confident, mocking smile of a predator. "You would be surprised. You're more like your father every day." She smiled, watching the muscles in Damon's arms flex. "You're Giuseppe's son, Damon. It shows in your face… and your temper."

Damon lunged. It wasn't as graceful as he had calculated; the covers twisted around his legs tying him to the bed, and the soft cushiony mattress didn't help with his push off. He barely swiped Gudren's left shoulder.

As he struggled to collect himself, Gudren let out a laugh. "I'll see you at eight, Damon." He tried to grab her, but his fingers only scrapped against fur as Gudren was replaced by a leather-winged bat.

Damon drew in a deep breath. He wasn't going to let this get to him. Besides, Gudren was right. He had a promise that he needed to keep, and it was only right for him to honor it. He flashed a smile in the mirror as he shrugged his jacket over his shoulders. His little promise was going to have a slight change of plans.

**A/N: Huh, everyone was on a phone this chapter. I guess I'm not too original in that aspect. ;)** **Yes, Gudren can turn into a bat. I thought it would be cool, and I wanted her to be a little **_**batty**_**. Aha ha ha! What? It wasn't funny? Well, no reason to be a killjoy. Thursdays are now my favorite day of the week, since the Vampire Diaries is now a T.V. show (and a pretty good one at that). Is it just me, or does it seem like they fused Meredith and Bonnie together into one character? But, that's fine with me. It's good that they're not making the show too much like the books so people like me won't compare the two so closely. And have I mentioned how much I love Ian as Damon? He plays the role to perfection! ;) Updates will be some time this year (hopefully!) I'm trying to get a new chapter out every Thursday, but I now have swimming everyday under my belt. I try to respond to reviews, but sometimes the only thing I can think of is 'Thanks for the review!' Which seems so generic. But, I do appreciate all of my reviews! They make me very happy. **

**-Nightmare**


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